; they can delay it on its
shelves and rapids; they can turn it back again to the soft moss amidst
which its sources issue."

"Ah, you are kind," replied the gratified author. "You always find out
the best bits in my books."

I have never seen anything of its kind so chivalric as the deference
paid by Robert Browning to Walter Savage Landor. It was loyal homage
rendered by a poet in all the glow of power and impulsive magnetism to
an "old master."

* * * * *

Landor often berated the custom of dinner-parties. "I dislike large
dinners exceedingly. This herding together of men and women for the
purpose of eating, this clatter of knives and forks, is barbarous. What
can be more horrible than to see and hear a person talking with his
mouth full? But Landor has strange notions, has he not, Giallo? In fact
_Padrone_ is a fool if we may believe what folks say. Once, while
walking near my villa at Fiesole, I overheard quite a flattering remark
about myself, made by one _contadino_ to another. My beloved countrymen
had evidently been the subject of conversation, and, as the two fellows
approached my grounds, one of them pointed towards the villa and
exclaimed: 'Tutti gli Inglesi sono pazzi, ma questo poi!' (All the
English are mad,--but _this one_!) Words were too feeble to express the
extent of my lunacy, and so both men shrugged their shoulders as only
Italians can. Yes, Giallo, those _contadini_ pitied your old master, and
I dare say they were quite right."

* * * * *

While talking one day about Franklin, Landor said: "Ah, Franklin was a
great man; and I can tell you an anecdote of him that has never been in
print, and which I had directly from a personal friend of Franklin's,
who was acting as private secretary to Lord Auckland, the English
ambassador at Paris during Franklin's visit to the French Court. On one
occasion, when Franklin presented himself before Louis, he was most
cavalierly treated by the king, whereupon Lord Auckland took it upon
himself to make impertinent speeches, and, notwithstanding Franklin's
habitually courteous manners, sneered at his appearing in court dress.
Upon Franklin's return home, he was met by ----, who, being much
attached to him,--a bit of a republican, too,--was anxious to learn the
issue of the visit. 'I was received badly enough,' said Franklin. 'Your
master, Lord Auckland, was very insolent. I am not quite sure that,